First Place Baby!

 

Our Oakland Raiders are in first place of the AFC West and how sweet it is. Stellar play on the offensive line, by Carson Palmer and Michael Bush along with our entire Defense took a hard won victory from the Chargers in classic Raider Fashion! Being a Bully!

The biggest stat of the day, in my opinion, was Michael Bushs' 30 carries for 157 yards, gashing the chargers as he ran through tremendous holes opened up by a newly formed offensive line. With Samson Satele out this week from an injury sustained in the Denver Game, rookie Stefen Wisniewski stepped in with StephonHeyer to shore up that center of the offensive line and parted the blue sea of Charger jerseys. He ran with finesse when needed and lowered the boom at other times. He also added another 3 catches for 85 yards on screen passes, which caught the gaping Chargers defense off guard and kept long drives going for the opportunistic Raiders Offense.

Carson Palmer was also key to this victory. Following up on his first 300 yard performance against Denver, Carson came out blazing, building on the chemistry with rookie Denarius Moore and throwing 14-20 and 299 yards with 2 touchdowns and one pick that should not have happened had Bush picked up the blitzing line backer in the 4th quarter. Carson read that play perfectly in a repeat opportunity similar to the play that Jacoby Ford caught against Denver for the touchdown against the sideline of the Black Hole end zone in the O.Co. Palmer also continued to keep the defense on their toes, distributing the ball to 6 different receivers in the game.

Not to forget, the defense came up huge in this game for us, with Kamerion Wimbley getting 4 sacks, another from Tommy Kelly and yet another from Desmond Bryant. He was pressured all night and could not find his groove with his banged up wide receiver corp, and miscommunication seemed to be the effect of the tough Bully play of the front 7. That was clearly obvious in the interception that Matt Giordano had in the end zone against Vincent Jackson, who did not appear to even anticipate the throw coming his way.

Team Stat Comparison

	Oak	SD
1st Downs	20	20
Passing 1st downs	11	13
Rushing 1st downs	8	5
1st downs from Penalties	1	2
3rd down efficiency	4-10	5-16
4th down efficiency	0-1	1-1
Total Plays	63	68
Total Yards	489	314
Passing	298	239
Comp-Att	14-21	23-47
Yards per pass	14.2	5.1
Rushing	191	75
Rushing Attempts	41	15
Yards per rush	4.7	5.0
Red Zone (Made-Att)	1-3	1-2
Penalties	7-45	6-31
Turnovers	2	2
Fumbles lost	1	1
Interceptions thrown	1	1
Defensive / Special Teams TDs	0	0
Possession	32:37	27:23

 

 

As you can see, the Raiders dominated in many categories and many more wont be shown by stats. True to form, the Raiders are on their way to Being The Bully we have been promised by Hue Jackson, and the Carson Palmer trade, as I have always said, was the best move of the year so far.


Leave me your comments and feedback below after reading. Let me know who you thought stood out more the others. Who was your MVP? Who was your most improved player or group?

Exciting news coming to Chaotic View in the next blog. Stay tuned!

Chaotic View

  

Not Dwelling.....

                      So much is being made of the loss to the Denver Broncos and rightfully so. I mean the Raiders were expected to hand Denver a loss as sure as the sun was going to rise in the morning. Well, as they say, any given Sunday.....It happened..... Moving On.

I am not here to dwell too much on the negative that came out of the game with Denver, but I am here to talk about what we did right.... as small as the right was.....

Carson Palmer - Sure, he threw 3 interceptions, but did everyone forget he went 19/35 for 332 yards? Did everyone forget to look at the fact that he is gaining trust from his wide receiver core? Jacoby Ford with a TD, Marcel Reece with a TD and Michael Bush with a TD. Carson completed to 8 different receivers in the Denver game. He had 14 passing first downs. He made good throws and had the zip on the ball that so many said he didn't have anymore after his elbow injury a few years ago. Sky is the limit with this guy, and I see his stock going higher and higher and may soon even be close in comparison to the Rich Gannon era of offense. Sorry Jason Campbell, as good as you did in managing the offense, I can't remember the last 300 yard passing day you had.

  

Michael Bush - Oh how big of a task it is to fill in the shoes of Darren McFadden this year. For the most part, what I have always noticed about Michael Bush when he would go in to give Darren a break during a long drive, he would always run into the back of his offensive lineman and wouldnt get his downhill speed going, constantly going down on first contact. In addition to that, he never lowered the shoulder to finish out runs like McFadden has become so notorious for in recent past. Well this week was a night and day difference for Michael. He was able to get through the line of scrimmage to the second level consistently and ran for a total of 96 yards on 19 carries. It may not seem like a lot to some, because we are so used to being spoiled by Darren, but 96 yards for Michael Bush is a big deal to me because it is not only the distance that he ran for, but the punishment that he handed out when finishing the runs that is making the diifference for me. If he can get the same thing going against a Charger defense that is hanging on from multiple injuries to their defensive line, then we will have the ball control that we need to control the clock and keep Philip Rivers off the field and win the game.

Now, I am not going to act as if there are not any negative things that we need to do a better job at, but talking about them just reminds me of the bad feelings I get when watching the games and does not do any good, nor does it make you want to read more. But, just for s*its and giggles, they are:

• Aggressive play calling. Play to win, not to lose.
• Better pass protection. Give Carson more time to make his progressions is going to be key to not turning the ball over.
• Improved special teams gap assignment play.
• Improved linebacker and defensive line play. CONTROL THE RUN!

All in all, if we can continue building this bully and playing smart controled football, success will go our way again.

Dont forget, we are tied for first place still in the Division and determine our own future going forward.

FYI. Exciting news coming to Chaotic View soon. We are bulding our affiliations and will be making this blog more interactive for you. More to come.

Chaotic View